


In which Remus is wolfy, Sirius likes shoes and James is unhelpful

by Esinde Nayrall (red_squared)



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Crossdressing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-05-10
Updated: 2005-05-30
Packaged: 2017-10-09 19:18:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/90655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_squared/pseuds/Esinde%20Nayrall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>See title.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flesh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flesh/gifts), [daikon_kamen](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=daikon_kamen).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's for [](http://fleshdress.livejournal.com/profile)[**fleshdress**](http://fleshdress.livejournal.com/), because I have been driving her crazy with my demands for shoe-fetish ever since the May Marathon began over at [](http://community.livejournal.com/pervy_werewolf/profile)[](http://community.livejournal.com/pervy_werewolf/)**pervy_werewolf**.
> 
> Originally posted [**here**](http://red-squared.livejournal.com/14875.html).

  
"Moony. _Moony_! Let _go_ you stupid, brainless – Bad wolf!"

"You know, anyone would think that he likes that shoe more than he likes you," James says, making Sirius want to hex him for the twentieth time since he arrived. Considering that James only arrived ten minutes ago, this is quite an impressive effort. "That can't be good for the leather."

No, salivating werewolves digging their teeth into someone's shoe and refusing to let go was _not _good for shoe leather, nor had it done much for the horrible, plasticky material Remus' gumboots were made out of, or for the fake velvet his slippers were made out of, or, for that matter, Sirius Black's temper.

And he's only been home for half an hour.

"You know, you could at least _try _to make yourself useful instead of simply sitting there and swilling all my tea," he snarls, managing to get a good grip on the shoe, on either side of Remus' clenched teeth.

"I offered to help before!" James replies, affronted. "_You're _the one that wouldn't let me use _petrifica- _"

"You are _not _to use a full body-bind on him," he repeats, as Remus wrenches out of his grip and bounds off. On all fours. "You're supposed to help me work out how to reverse the effects of this stupid potion."

"There's always _stupe-_"

"_No,_ there _isn't_," he says, watching tiredly as Remus goes racing past again. In all honesty, he doesn't have the heart to knock Remus out. Simply can't bring himself to do it. "It's not his fault. When he agreed to trial the Wolfsbane, the worst side-effects he was told about was that it tasted like filth, he might have a killer headache, and it might not have any effect," desired or otherwise, "on his transformation."

"Nothing in the small print about it warping his mind to make him act like a brain-damaged Golden Retriever for a week?"

"No, I - " He blinks in surprise, as Remus crawls up to him with a pink, satin slingback in his mouth. "Moony, where did you get this?" he asks, horrified.

"You didn't leave the front door open, did you?" James asks unhelpfully.

"You were the last one through it," he says testily. "Is it too much to ask that you shut it behind you?"

Remus drops the shoe at his feet, and puts his face in Sirius' lap, staring up soulfully. He gives Remus an absent pat on the head.

"Where else could he have got it from, then?"

Remus twists his head about so he can lick Sirius' hand. He starts to smile and then notices James looking at him strangely, and pulls his hand away. _Sorry, Moony. Not in front of other people. _Remus gives him a hurt look, and puts his face back in Sirius' lap, determined to reestablish eye contact.

"Maybe the people who lived here before us left it behind," he says, trying to ignore the way Remus' mouth is turned down at the corners. If James makes the connection between the shoe and an earlier conversation in which Sirius explained that he regularly has his legs (and arms...and unmentionables) waxed because it "makes him more aerodynamic"...

"Shouldn't be hard to track down, a woman missing a single, pink shoe, who's got bigger feet than me."

"Yeah, right," he says nervously, edging his own feet under his chair and out of view. Remus picks the shoe up again and trots off with it.

"What is he _doing _with them? Burying them in the back garden?"

"We're on the fifth floor, you prat. We haven't _got _a back garden."

"Well he's obviously taking them somewhere," James says, frowning and drawing his wand.

"You know Prongs, I think we've already worked out there isn't much you can do here, why don't you just - "

"Holy _fuck_!" He drops everything and races over to James' side, looking into the study. "There're nearly _sixty _of them!" Silence, and then, "And they're not even pairs, they're all left shoes... It's like he's building a nest out of them or somethi- _Whose shoes are those?_"

"Previous owner?" he offers, starting to sweat and wanting to kick James out of their flat and kill Remus all at the same time.

_Remus John Lupin, you'd better hope it's possible to spell tooth marks and drool out of satin uppers, or I am going to welt your backside with the very next shoe you -_

"There are _five _turquoise shoes!"

"Prongs - " Remus drops the pink shoe onto the pile and gambols over to Sirius, sitting on the floor in front of him and looking up at him with wide, puppy-eyes. _Oh, don't look at me like that. I can't stay angry with you if you're going to do that._

"And eight pink ones!"

Remus latches onto a mouthful of Sirius' robes and tugs him towards the pile of shoes. "For me, Moony? Oh, you really, really shouldn't have," he says vaguely, trying to keep from tripping.

"I mean, fucking stupid colours aside, who buys that many shoes? Is this some woman thing?"

"Hard to say," he replies, tugging his robes free of Remus' mouth, kneeling so he is at eye-level with his boyfriend, and furtively looking over the shoes for any signs of damage.

Remus takes advantage of his position to lick his face.

"Moony!" he says, gently pushing Remus away. Remus gives him the hurt look again, and whines high in his throat. "Oh, stop it," he admonishes, reaching his fingers up behind Remus' ear and scratching.

"I'm warning you, Padfoot. If he puts his face in my crotch, I'm hexing him."

"_No one _is going to put their face in your crotch Prongs. Honestly, if you can't do anything useful, you can - "

"Fine, fine," James says, giving the pile of shoes one last, puzzled look before making for the door. Remus follows him out of the study, before changing direction and haring off towards Sirius' bedroom. "Looks like he's going to start on _your _shoes, now."

The sooner he can get James out of the flat, the sooner he can stop worrying about James working out that it might, in fact, be too late to prevent Remus from getting to his shoes.

"All right," he says, settling for grabbing James' sleeve and dragging him towards the front door. "I'll see what I can - "

"Sleeping potion?"

"What would you say if I told you he's had five today already?" James' brows shoot up. "Yes, exactly. All I need is for you to agree to be my witness when we go to St. Mungo's to complain."

_Please, oh please, let him bring my trainers. Or something normal. Not the diamantes. Not the platforms. All hells, please, not the stilettos..._

"Yeah, I can see it now," James says, grinning. "Potion did not work as advertised, and gave the patient an unhealthy preoccupation with shoes."

"Good. Right," he says, physically pushing James out. "I'll see you later," he adds, slamming the door before James can see him blush. "Moony!"

Remus appears at the doorway, with yet another shoe clamped between his teeth – a hideously expensive, dark, red, stiletto sandal that he's particularly fond of.

"Come here, you bloody idiot!" Remus walks over to him, still with the shoe in his mouth and a confused expression on his face, as though he can't possibly imagine what he's done to upset Sirius _this _time.

He kneels down again, smiling when Remus spits the shoe to the floor in front of him, and wags his tail. At least, this is what he imagines Remus is _trying _to do, but since he doesn't actually have a tail, he's looking at Sirius, panting, and wiggling his bottom.

"You really are very cute, you know," he says with a laugh, as Remus knocks him backwards, scrambles up onto him and licks his face. "In fact, it's very tempting to keep you like this," he adds, thankful beyond words that he managed to get rid of James before his best friend realised that Remus Lupin's unhealthy preoccupation while high on a badly brewed potion was _nothing _compared to Sirius Black's unhealthy preoccupation on any given day of the year, "if I could just get you to stop chewing my shoes."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> This one's for [](http://daikon-kamen.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://daikon-kamen.livejournal.com/)**daikon_kamen** whose request was:
> 
> _Question for "Untitled Sexualised Shoe Smut (without the smut, or, for that matter, the sexualisation…)" Sirius, how make you understand Terrir!Remus that piss in the Salon was NOT a good idea?_
> 
> _And the request... well, I would like to see something about Sirius feeling safe and protected being with Remus. (Or anything with a lot of pretty Blacks ^o^)_
> 
> Originally posted [**here**](http://red-squared.livejournal.com/16124.html).

_Six nights to Full moon_

The image of the sky that they bewitched onto the ceiling of their bedroom tells him that it is several hours until dawn. He rolls over in bed, wondering what could have woken him.

"Moony?" There is a sound of distress, like a puppy in pain, high and whiney. _All hells, Remus!_ That was what woke him, he realises, scrabbling to turn his robe inside out and get his arms through it at the same time.

Snatching his wand up at the last minute, he casts _lumos_ throughout the entire apartment, eyes searching for his boyfriend. The effects of the potion are likely to take longer than one night to wear off, even though the Apothecaries at St. Mungos recommended that Remus discontinue the course of Wolfsbane.

"Moony," he calls softly, still uncertain which direction the sound came from.

Remus, when he finally finds him, is in the front room of their flat, twisting on the floor as if in pain. He can see at a glance that the front of Remus' pyjama bottoms is wet, and Remus is on his back, rubbing against the floor to free them from his hips so he can urinate properly.

"Hey Moony," he says, trying hard to keep from sounding censorious. "Sweetheart, not here, here's not where you should do that."

Remus ignores him, continuing to struggle with his clothing. What was it they said in the puppy training books? Positive affirmation. Right. Well, he can't let Remus out to do his business – the neighbours think they're strange enough as it is.

"Come with me," he says, crouching down to scoop Remus into his arms. "Not here," he says, trying for a stern tone. Remus is panting, nuzzling his throat, and still urinating. "Not here, not here, not here," he says, panting himself, with the effort of carrying Remus, running and speaking all at the same time.

"Here," he says, lowering Remus into their empty bathtub. "You can go here," he says, pushing Remus' pyjama bottoms over his hips and freeing his cock. "Good boy," he adds, when Remus touches their noses together, tempted to try for a kiss. "You're so good, so clever." It might just be his imagination, but it seems for a moment that Remus smiles at him. "Beautiful wolf."

When he tries to kiss the other boy – and Remus _is_ a boy, even if he doesn't think he is – Remus thwarts him, licking his face from jaw to temple.

"Come on," he says, determined not to take it personally. Casting _scourigify_ and _lavo_, he reaches into the tub and picks Remus up once more. "Let's go back to bed, hmm?"

~~*~~

_Five nights to Full moon_

It's at times like this he wishes he were twenty-one already, so he and Remus could tell James and Peter that they are a couple, that they are sleeping together, that they are in love. Perhaps then the other two would trust him to know what was best for his boyfriend.

"There's no need to bite Wormtail's nose off," James says, in a tone of voice that is much too patient. "It's not a bad idea – if Moony can't control it, there's always nappies."

He resists the urge to rub tiredly at his face. Staying up all night with Remus, and then having to watch him all day is starting to wear on his nerves. There seems to be almost no end to the sort of trouble a wolf pup can get itself into, and the shoes weren't even the beginning of it.

"No," he snaps. He can feel Peter's eyes move from James to him, as if the other boy is watching a duel, watching the exchange of wand fire between two people facing off.

"Why not?" James challenges. Peter's eyes swing back to him.

He grits his teeth, furious with James for questioning him in front of Peter. If he's being honest with himself, he's probably furious with James for questioning him at all.

_Why not? Because it's demeaning, because he'll find a way to wriggle out of it, because you've done nothing other than treat this like it's a **joke** ever since it happened, and this is my **boyfriend** you're laughing at._

"Why not?" he repeats, deliberately mocking. Peter's gaze is back on him now, and if James wants to argue, then he can fuck off. He's not about to start explaining his actions to anyone. "Because I said so," he says firmly, making it clearer than words that he has said all he intends to on the subject.

James opens his mouth and then closes it again, almost immediately. "Right then," James says, at last. "Come on, Wormtail, I can tell we're not wanted here."

_Sod twenty-one_, he thinks savagely, as the door slams. _If I could get Remus to agree to it, I'd tell the pair of you today._

~~*~~

_Four nights to Full moon_

"Mmm, love you too," he tells Remus, as the other boy licks his face excitedly. "Easy, easy or I'll drop it."

The dish is set on the table above them, and he's reaching up, pulling the stew down one handful at a time, and feeding it to Remus.

After the first night, setting a dish on the floor for his boyfriend…

He simply can't bear to do it again, can't stomach seeing his intelligent, sarcastic, _brilliant_ boyfriend on his hands and knees with his face in a bowl.

"Nice?" he asks tentatively, shifting his balance on the floor as Remus laps at his fingers.

The feel of Remus' tongue licking his fingers clean is so arousing, he can feel himself stirring, but the chances of getting any action out of Remus in his current condition are close to zero.

For one moment, just for one crazy, idiotic, Marauderesque moment, he considers stripping off his robe, pouring the stew over himself and letting Remus do as he pleases…

…but only for a moment, before he sighs, crosses his legs, and reaches up for another messy handful of the stew.

~~*~~

_Three nights to Full moon_

It's not that the condition isn't without its positives. For one thing, Remus has started to fetch the paper in the morning, and deliver it to him in bed.

The downside is that the Prophet is so drooled over that by the time he unfolds the crossword on the next-to-last page, it's impossible to read, and he's too lazy to reach for his wand and _reparo_ it.

Besides, once Remus delivers the paper, he expects to be rewarded, and all of the petting and stroking and licking _that_ entails is more than a little distracting.

Afterwards, after he's handfed Remus half a bottle of milk and made some tea for himself, he _swishes_ and _flicks_ the Prophet back to legibility, and scans over the headlines.

_Dark Mark in Stafford but the bodies are yet to be found, bloody stupid introduction of a smaller regulation Snitch because the Players' Union wants the games to go for longer, where's my crossword got to…_

He sits up as he flips to the last page, scanning the room for a quill to summon, when he notices that Remus is walking around in circles, sniffing at the carpet.

"No!" he commands, pointing in the direction of the bathroom. Remus looks up at him, all startled innocence. "None of that in here!"

Looking slightly guilty now, Remus slinks out of the room, while Sirius searches for a quill.

_One across, female hinkypunk, twelve letters_. He almost calls out to Remus to help him, and then remembers that Remus won't be able to answer him, before moving on to three across. _Three across, grindylow instar after maturity but before first spawning, oh for fuck's sake…_

"Moony?" he calls, getting out of the chair. "Any chance you've regained the ability to speak and walk upright in the last ten minutes and haven't – Oh, Moony, _no_."

Of course, he should never have underestimated the strength of positive affirmation. Rather than tell Moony what a good puppy he was for doing his business in the bathroom, Sirius spent more energy persuading not to go in the front room.

So really, all Remus has learned is _not_ to do it in the front room, not that he is _only_ to do it in the bathroom, and as a result, can't see anything wrong with doing it in the bedroom.

Just as well he left the paper in the other room – the temptation to roll it up and thwack Remus with it is overwhelming.

~~*~~

_Two nights to Full moon_

Five days without sex… it's the longest they've gone without since moving in together.

More than the lack of sex, it's the uncertainty that depresses him, the fact that he has no way of knowing whether or not Remus still desires him, still loves him, or whether he only thinks of Sirius as the hand that feeds him.

It's half six, but he can't be arsed cooking – it's much easier to curl up into a ball on the sofa and hate the rest of the world. He hasn't been to work in five days, hasn't had a conversation with a normal person since he kicked James and Peter out of the flat…much more of this, and he'll start to go 'round the twist.

_I **must** be hard up for company if I think of **those** two as normal._

"Hello sweetheart," he manages, when Remus comes looking for him, expecting to be fed. Remus jumps up onto the sofa with him, and leans over him, on all fours, looking at him with wide, concerned eyes. "I miss you," he sighs, unable to maintain his superficial good humour. "Miss having you with me properly."

For a moment, he can pretend that he has Remus back again, that Remus is cornering him on the sofa as a prelude to kissing him within an inch of himself, but when Remus moves off him and scampers away, he realises that probably won't be happening any time soon.

He could probably initiate sex if he becomes that desperate – he has no doubt that Remus is capable, but he doesn't _want_ a quick fuck just for the sake of fucking.

"I want you to fuck me," he whispers, when he hears Remus return. "But not in-out quick, no." There is a soft 'clunk', slightly muffled by the carpet, and then Remus jumps back onto the sofa with him, searching for space. "Want you to hold me down on the bed while you tickle me. I love that."

He shifts back against the sofa, leaving Remus room to curl up in front of him. Spooning into his boyfriend from behind, he continues, "Want to have you pressing me up against the wall, holding me, feeling your arms around me. Love that too," he says, hiccoughing over the words slightly and clearing his throat. "Miss hearing you tell me all the dirty things you want to do to me when you get me alone," he says, feeling his throat tighten. "I'm - "

He stops, unable to speak for a moment. _I miss getting dressed for you, going out with you, miss it so much, and it's only been five days. I'm going mad without you, Remus, but you're right **here**._

"I can't even talk with you properly," he sobs, burying his face in Remus' back, and hearing Remus make that small, distressed sound high in his throat. "I wish you'd stop being like this, I'm so _sick_ of having to look after you, of having to watch you every second, of having to be the responsible one and do the thinking for both of us. You won't - "

He stops, his shoulders heaving, as he struggles to get the words out. "And I'm sorry I'm so selfish, because I _know_ this must be so much worse for you, but the last two times I went to St. Mungos, all anybody asked me was how _you_ were. No one wants to know how _I_ feel, or cares what _I_ think, and I'm so sick of this, Moony. I don't even know who to be angry at, because it's not really anybody's fault, and I don't understand how you can just do _nothing_ all day and not even care, I don't know what you're thinking and…I want my boyfriend back."

Remus wriggles out of his grip and drops to the floor, leaving him to sit upright and pull himself together, drying his eyes on a sleeve of his robe.

"What - " he starts to say, watching as Remus picks something up off the floor between his teeth and brings it to him, laying it reverentially at his feet. "Oh."

It's the left of a pair of shoes. The high-gloss, patent-black pumps with the three-inch heel. The shoes that Remus bought for him, for their third anniversary.

It's not random chance. It's _not_. There must be at least another thirty pairs of his shoes in the cupboard, and Remus chose this one to bring to him. _Remus_. Not Moony.

"Thank you," he says, smiling tearily as Remus jumps back onto the sofa with him, curling up on one side and resting his head in Sirius' lap. "I love you, too," he says softly, threading his fingers through Remus' hair and feeling more certain of himself than he's felt in days.

~~*~~

_ One night to Full moon_

"Not here, Moony," he says, with exaggerated patience. "Bathroom, come on," he cajoles, wrapping his arms around Remus' middle and carrying him there.

He dumps Remus in the bathtub, and Remus whimpers at the feel of the cold, enamel-coated, cast iron against his bare skin.

"You _do_ need to go, don't you?" he says impatiently, glancing at his watch. He owled the hospital earlier that morning, asking them to send some work across to him. He's supposed to have a stack of case notes completed for his patients before six o'clock this evening, and he's much too far behind already.

Remus puts his hands up on the rim of the tub and cocks his head at Sirius.

"All right, well, if you need to do anything, do it here," he says, heading back to the study.

The little hill of shoes is still there, since Remus gives him a heart-broken look every time he tries to put them away. After looking over them the first time, he realised that Remus pulled out only the shoes _he_ bought for Sirius, not the ones that Sirius bought himself.

_I know you were the one that gave them to me, but they **are** my shoes,_ he thinks wearily, fingers itching to put them back in their boxes.

His brain has turned into porridge, he _knows_ it has, because it is so hard to make any sense out of what he's written so far, and then he realises that he's encrypted the parchment, and no _wonder_ it doesn't make any sense. _Where did I put the - _

The sound of panting at the door makes him put his quill down, turning around to –

"Moony, _no_!" he shouts, causing Remus to jump in alarm. "What did I just _say_, I left you in the bathroom, for fuck's sake, if you can't behave, I'm going to lock you in. _Lavo_," he incants, watching the conjured soap bubbles go to work. A particularly large, shiny soap bubble floats clear of Remus' body, and Remus tracks it with his eyes.

The cleaning spell used to remove the stain on the carpet has to be a modified version of _scourgify_. The cleansing charm normally conjures an astringent containing bleach, and the idea is to remove the odour of ammonia entirely to discourage puppies from returning to the same place.

Returning to the doorway with the relevant spell book, it is evident that Remus has already forgotten about the incident, and wants to play.

"Not now," he says, pushing Remus aside as he crouches in front of the stain, wand at the ready. "_Scou_\- I said, not _now_," he repeats furiously, when Remus tries to lick his wand hand. "Get out of my way!"

Losing his temper, he gives Remus a violent shove and slams the door shut, ignoring his boyfriend's yelp of pain. Casting the modified _scourgify_ spell, he's relieved to see the stain disappear.

_Thank fuck for that_, he thinks, going back to his desk and squinting bleary-eyed at the parchment in front of him. _What did I get up to? Right, the notes are encrypted, where did I leave the key… Kitchen. _

Pushing his chair back, he wanders out into the hall. Remus has vanished, and he's guiltily pleased that he doesn't need to deal with Remus at the moment.

That is, until he reaches the kitchen, and Remus looks up at him, pawing urgently at the front door. His stomach flips at the sight of Remus cringing in fear as he approaches.

_Don't look at me like that, please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…_

"Moony," he calls, forgetting about the key, about his notes, about everything other than making Remus understand that he didn't mean it, and that he needs desperately for Remus to forgive him.

But Remus isn't having any of it, backing away from him slowly. Remus' nose is bleeding, presumably from having a door slammed on it, and he _hates_ himself for causing Remus pain. _It was only a stain on the carpet,_ he thinks uselessly, _nothing worth breaking his face over._

"Moony," he repeats, following after Remus, who is still scrabbling backwards, away from him, backing up into a corner of the front room. _Got you,_ he thinks, reaching out for Remus. "Moony, I'm sor- hey!"

He yanks his hand back just as Remus' teeth snap together, only just missing his fingers. Remus has his lips peeled back and he's snarling like a frightened puppy, cornered and resorting to aggression as a last resort.

_Food,_ he thinks desperately, walking away. _Will that persuade you to trust me again,_ he wonders, trying not to panic, wanting to get to Remus and heal his battered nose.

There are several things under preserving charms in the pantry that he might be able to tempt Remus with. He settles on the remains of yesterday's pie and wanders back over to Remus.

Not wanting to attempt handfeeding Remus when the other boy might bite him, he sets the dish on the floor in front of Remus and steps away.

Once the food is mostly gone, it should be safe to approach Remus. _I should have done this from the start,_ he thinks. He strips completely, setting his clothing in a pile on the sofa, and then lowers himself onto all fours, approaching Remus from his level.

Remus watches him cautiously. That isn't the expression Remus normally wears when he sees Sirius naked, and it makes him nervous.

Self-conscious.

Like they're meeting for the first time.

"Moony," he says, wondering not for the first time how Remus knows to respond to the name, when he hasn't shown any sign of understanding anything else Sirius says. "I'm so sorry. Can we be friends again?" he asks softly, as Remus starts to lick the plate clean.

Remus is distracted enough for him to get close. He manages to get his hands on Remus' face so he can heal him, and again he has to hear the yelp of pain, as Remus tries to pull out of his grip.

"I'm sorry," he repeats, apologising both for hurting Remus by _hurting_ him, and for hurting him again by healing him. He moves his hands from Remus' face to his ears, scratching gently behind both of them. "Love you," he says, kissing Remus' face, his jaw, his neck, everywhere Remus will let him reach. "I can't believe I did that to you, I'm so sorry."

Remus' eyes are drooping shut, due to the exhaustion that follows being magically healed. "I'm sorry," he repeats, hating himself for putting Remus to sleep like this.

He can't go back to his work now, not when all he'll be able to think about is the fact that he put his boyfriend to sleep because he was inconvenient. He rests his head on Remus' chest as the other boy passes out. He's too tired to carry Remus back to bed, and if Remus is going to be left to sleep on the floor, well, he won't be alone...

"So sorry."

~~*~~

_Full moon day_

He can hear Remus moving about in the kitchen, but can't be bothered getting out of bed to tell him to use the bathroom. If it comes down to it, he's tempted just to let Remus run wild and have someone come 'round to _scourgify_ the flat in its entirety afterwards.

_Wait,_ he thinks, scenting something singed in the air. _What's burning?_

Twisting awake in alarm, he has a moment to be surprised that he is dressed in his nightshirt, and in their bed. Which _shouldn't_ be surprising, except that he was fairly certain that they both fell asleep on the floor last night. He turns to the bedside table to reach for his wand, when Remus climbs up onto the bed, curling into him from behind.

"Are you being deliberately offensive, Black? I go to the trouble of making you breakfast, and you - "

"Remus?"

"Yes," Remus says, as Sirius turns to face him. "I'm better. Finally."

"Why are you making breakfast?" he asks stupidly, every muscle aching from sleeping on the floor for half the night. "You have to transform tonight, you're supposed to rest."

"I think you've done enough chasing after me this week, hmm? Come here," Remus offers, lifting the covers and pulling Sirius up against him. "Let me take care of you, for a change."

To his shame, the suggestion sounds wonderful, and he relaxes bonelessly against the other boy's arm as Remus leans forward and kisses him properly, for the first time in nearly a week.

"Missed you," he says, when they pause for air. Remus doesn't give him long to catch his breath before he starts kissing him again, his other hand curving around Sirius' leg and stroking _up_. It feels _so_ good to be touched like this, because as affectionate as Remus has been for the last week, _nothing_ compares to being kissed and fondled like this.

"I missed you too," Remus says, his hand still travelling up Sirius' leg, warm and smooth. "I didn't know it was you I was missing, though. All I knew was that I'd lost something, something I'd have done anything to get back."

"I hurt you," he says, feeling his throat tighten as he says it. "I'm so sorry," he says, reaching his fingers up to Remus' face and feathering over his nose. Remus pulls his head back after a bit and snaps playfully at his fingers. "It won't happen again."

"No," Remus says, "it won't, because next time, you're going to take the proper precautions. I love you for refusing to lock me up or restrain me, but Sirius, you can't afford to stay home and puppy-sit me again."

"Next time?" he says, alarmed, pushing Remus' questing hand away. "_Again?_ You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to ask you to test another experimental potion."

"You won't have to ask," Remus says. "I'm going to volunteer."

"_Why?_"

"Because I have you," Remus replies calmly, "to look after me, to heal me, to love me and take care of me, and you're clever enough that if anything goes wrong, I have _you_ to figure it out."

"Remus - "

"How many of the other test subjects have that?"

"You're not a test - "

"How many, Sirius?" He falls silent, unable to answer the question. "You know it makes sense."

"All right," he says, knowing better than to go up against Remus so soon after the event. "But no chewing my shoes," he says with forced lightness.

"I'll buy you new shoes."

"You always say that."

"_And_ I'll put the ones you have back in their boxes." He opens his mouth, but Remus speaks over him. "_And_ I will spell them clean beforehand. I'll even wrap them in that crunchy, tissue paper stuff they come in. _And_," Remus continues, pushing Sirius' nightshirt up around his hips, and holding him fast to the bed, "I will spend the days before _and_ after the potion takes effect holding you down and tickling you the way you like best."

"That's not fai- " he says, cutting off in a squeal as Remus' hands find the right spot on either side of his body, and _squeeze_. He starts to laugh, as Remus' fingers play over his sides, teasing him. He could come just from this, and has done in the past, many times.

"And once we're done with this," Remus says, his whispery breath hot and moist, "I'll push you up against the wall and fuck you slowly, the whole time detailing my _obscene_ desires to your pretty pink ear."

"I didn't think you heard what I said that day," he gasps, laughing so hard that it's painful, but wonderfully so.

"I always hear you," Remus says, pulling Sirius' nightshirt over his head and exposing him completely. "_Always_."

Which means that Remus must have heard the rest of it - how Sirius was tired of having to care for him, missed him terribly, couldn't bear to see him behaving the way he was. _And he wants to go ahead with it anyway. Knowing that._ He knows that are going to fight about Remus' 'next time'. Remus is out of his _mind_ if he thinks he's had the last word on the subject. But for now…

For now, he's content to lie back, feeling Remus' warm, loving hands all over his body, knowing that Remus adores him, and will do anything for him. For now, they're both _whole_, and he's more grateful for that than anything else.

There'll be plenty of time for arguing later.

**Author's Note:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated and treasured -- even (especially?) on a fic as old as this one!


End file.
